Citizenship Education

In this series of two seminars, we plan to tackle the issue of European Citizenship as a possible bridge to increased European understanding among the people of Europe (Course 1) and ask, whether citizenship education can be a means to further this understanding (Course 2). The idea of course 1 is to give an overview of the historical development of Europe from the European Community to the European Union; from its beginnings as an economic association to a federation of states which aim at some kind of unity surpassing economic aims. It will be discussed how the question of nationality, identity, and the question of citizenship as it derives from nation-states applies to the European Union. In what sense is it possible to speak about “citizenship”? What does this imply? Through an understanding of the unique political situation of the EU, the participants should reach an understanding of its aims and develop own ideas and views about the inherent possibilities and maybe pitfalls of the European Union. Within the scope of the course we will discuss, whether governance seems to be an adequate concept of dealing with different interests of different levels of participation in Europe: citizens, governments, economy, NGOs, and so on. Having laid a ground for understanding Europe as a political and social entity, the second course will discuss the question, whether citizenship education can help to develop a unique “European citizenship” which surpasses ideas of national citizenship. Therefore, in this course we are going to discuss different approaches of citizenship education, its ideas, aims, and underlying theoretical frameworks. One of the most important questions being how these curricula lead to “transformative learning”. A notion of learning developed mainly in concepts of Canadian and Latin American popular education which supports political and social action going beyond mere intellectual development and understanding. Discussing examples of citizenship education, participants should be able to develop their own ideas an curricula for teaching European citizenship education courses in the future. The seminar, organised by the EAAE, wants to promote the idea of active citizenship. Therefore, we invite participants to become actively involved in the seminar, to share their specific approaches to citizenship education; their teaching experiences; their visions. Those of you who are interested in introducing your own curricula to the participants are invited to prepare a presentation. We will send you some papers in advance for a more detailed preparation.